Designing the Ghost House

In the posting I did about the doll's house that we are building I mused about whether or not it could be automated to give the appearance of people or things living inside it.

Since then I thought a bit more and I think it's entirely practical that such a thing could be done and the diagram here gives an idea or two.

First up is using puppets - or automata - to give some motion to it. The mechanism can be hidden in the roof or floor - depending if they work by string or wire. Here you can see a ghost coming down through the floor and another skull making the same trip. Although these are shown using cranks, intact I'd probably use small servos or stepper motors to allow them two be moved individually. While the romance of brass cams and steampunk mechanisms appeals, using electronics gives more control and would allow interaction between the ghosts and the viewer in a less predictable way.

The last ghost, sitting bottom right in a chair is a variation on pepper's ghost a victorian illusion that I keep find now days being referred to as a 'hologram'  - it's not. It's a simple partial reflection that unless done live isn't even stereoscopic. In the use of the effect above, the originating image is a LCD screen built into the floor. You can see the reflective glass at 45 degrees and the ghost will apparently sit on the chair or move around.

I don't suppose I will ever build this, at least not in this form; but it was a good think through and design.I also quite liked the drawing that I did - at the moment I'm still into grunge and imperfection in a big way.

SS April 2015

Starting the Automata - work in progress.

Pu

This is a project long in the thinking stage. Basically it's an animated, interactive display, modelled on the animated tableau that used to be in seaside amusement arcades. They're all gone now - although there's a fine collection in Rye at the Heritage centre.

The plan for this one is to make a working fortune teller, although if it looks anything like these pictures then it will be a surprise. The visible part will be an animated puppet, and the hidden controls will be based on servos and probably controlled by an Arduino or a Crumble - I like the Crumble because it's simple and cheap, although it may not have the versatility to do what I want it to do.

These sketches are just trying to work out a prototype. Brought some balsa wood yesterday to make one up and trying to decide what it should look like. Was going to use ceramics for the puppets, but clay is just far too heavy.

In case you're wondering how the puppet will tell your fortune, you'll have to wait for a later blog post when I've worked out some technical details.